Sri Lanka Journal of Marketing Vol 6 No 1: January – June 2020

The Impact of Internal Marketing on Employee Brand Commitment

in Sri Lankan Insurance Industry

H.M.D.S. Wijenayaka
denushikasdw@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Internal marketing is one of the main strategies for service companies in which companies try to
optimize the organizational environment to improve service quality. Berry and Gronroos introduced in
1980s for the first time internal marketing concept, in the heart of the internal marketing this point is
that employees, domestic market within an organization. This thesis examines the depth of
understanding and the applicability of internal marketing in the insurance industry which is not a
conventional service industry. It also focuses on the relationship between perceptions of internal
marketing and employee brand commitment in the Sri Lankan insurance industry. While considering
and studying internal marketing and employee brand commitment in the Sri Lankan insurance industry
context is one of the main purposes of this research. This is a quantitative method and data collect
through questionnaire from 400 respondents. The quantitative data reveals that the influence of internal
marketing on employee brand commitment is positive and significance. The results of this study will
help the marketers to understand and develop this concept which can cater for the insurance companies.
The results will also help the management staff of the insurance companies in the context of raising
awareness in internal marketing as well as the Insurance Regulation Commission of Sri Lanka to
regulate the internal marketing principles to the Sri Lankan insurance industry.

Keywords: Affective Commitment, Continuance Commitment, Insurance Industry, Internal Marketing,

Normative Commitment

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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the Study

Internal marketing is one of the main strategies for service companies in which companies try to
optimize the organizational environment to improve service quality. Berry and Gronroos introduced in
1980s for the first time internal marketing concept, in the heart of the internal marketing this point is
that employees, domestic market within an organization. Internal marketing as an important concept
where firms apply marketing tools to attract and retain the best employees which enhance the business
performance. Internal marketing is a planned endeavor alike marketing to overcome infra-
organizational resistant towards change, motivating and coordinating employees in order to operate
corporate and functional strategies more effectively; customer’s satisfaction is derived through the
process of creating motivated and customer orientated employees (Ahmed and Rafiq, 2000). Internal
marketing is a philosophy or a way of thinking, a strategic approach that can guide managerial decision
making or a set of initiatives and activities for implementation (Huang & Rundle-Thiele, 2015). Every
organization has a market that is an internal customers and distributors that is an internal security needs
of the internal customers for the success is necessary. Real need to improve capabilities of the
organization in providing services to customers with value commensurate with the needs of customer
as based on competitive strategy and competitive advantage over the issue is very important in
management level of literature has changed. Employees can serve as internal customers to have been;
their job can be as product seen organization (Iliopoulos & Priporas, 2011).

Internal marketing leads to increase retention in the workplace and achieve organizational commitment
at different types, in all these species is made up of the staff a sense of belonging to the organization
and a sense of connection and tend therefore to show the behavior of belonging and therefore innovation
and the spirit of perseverance (Bowen & Schneider, 2014).

Brand commitment is an attachment feeling resulting from a previous satisfactory interaction with a
brand. According to the Srivastava & Owens (2010) brand commitment is the attitudinal dimension of
loyalty. And other way brand commitment is an attitudinal as well as a behavioral disposition (Ashley
& Leonard, 2009; Chaudri & Holbrook, 2002).

Taken together, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of internal marketing on brand
commitment.

1.2. Context of the Study

Insurance industry as one of the indicators of development on the one hand, as one of the major financial
institutions and other organizations to support the activities (Agalliu, 2012). According to the annual
report of Insurance Regulation Commission in Sri Lanka - IRCSL (2017), insurance industry consists

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with 28 insurance companies and 60 companies registered as insurance brokers. Due to the nature of
business, availability of widespread branches over the island plays an important role in distributing the
insurance services to customers. Branches reported in 2017 are 1,151 life insurance branches, 765
general insurance branches and 163 composite insurance branches. Total numbers of agents servicing
the industry are 44,866 in 2017. Total number of employees servicing the insurance industry amounted
to 18,467 during the year 2017. However, insurance penetration in Sri Lanka is just about 1.24% of the
GDP (IRCSL Report, 2017). This is quite low given that the population of Sri Lanka now stands at over
21.444 million. Consumer insurance penetration has been one of the biggest challenges in Sri Lanka as
it denotes Rs. 164,623 million of contribution in the GDP representing both life and non-life segments
(IRCSL Report, 2017). Industry is keen to enhance customers’ satisfaction at cost savvy level in the
competitive market place.

1.3. Problem Statement

1.3.1. Literature Gap

Financial service sector of Sri Lanka has been noted as a research scant in terms of internal branding
on overall performance branding related practices (Nirmali et. al, 2018; Dissanayake & Ismail, 2015).
Therefore, those empirical arguments support to confirm that Sri Lankan financial service sector needs
to be examined on their practices of internal marketing and employee brand commitment related
strategies to examine their relationship. Additionally, the concept of brand citizenship behavior is a
wider subject arena and the perspective and opinion towards a brand might be different from person to
person or time to time (Jayampathi & Dissanayake, 2018). Sri Lankan economy is largely depending
on the service sector and most of the job opportunities are generated within the service sector industries
which includes banking, insurance and financial services (Central Bank Report, 2017). Insurance sector
in Sri Lanka is one of the significant contexts that demand empirical studies in par with the postulations
proposed by Nirmali et. al (2018) and Dissanayake & Ismail (2015). Meanwhile, insurance sector has
been referred as one of the significant contexts in Sri Lanka whilst research gaps related to branding
perspectives are also highlighted in the same context (Dissanayake, 2015).

1.3.2. Theoretical Gap

Researcher has found few theories base on the research concepts. Organizational commitment theory
talks more of the emotional connections (Edwards, 2005). Thus organizational commitment is
considered as staff’s emotional attachment to the organization (Meyer & Allen, 2002). O’Reilly &
Chatman (1986) define that brand commitment is the psychological attachment or the feeling of
belonging an employee has towards an organization’s brand.

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1.3.3. Practice Gap

When the modern context is being considered, both current and potential customers of the insurance
industry of Sri Lanka are closely interacting and dealing with insurance companies. There are 28
insurance companies operating in the insurance industry. An intensive competition is noted among the
non-banking finance institutions as well as banking institutions (Central Bank Report, 2017). As per
the industry insights, retaining of best performing employees in the sales sector in extremely significant
for the financial sector in order to build and maintain competitive advantage due to the increasing
demand levels of customers, increase pressure from governing bodies as well increased levels of
industry rivalry among the competitors. Insurance sector recorded a strong performance in terms of
asset growth and branch network expansion during past years amidst challenging business environment,
while placing emphasis on gradually moving out from its core businesses (IRCSL Report, 2017).
Therefore, in order to stand strong and sustain in the industry in the longer run, companies have to
strengthen their work forces, for which employee retention is important. Internal marketing which is
dealing with staff motivation has been claimed as critically important matter in Sri Lankan finance
service sector (Nirmali, Khathibi & Azarn, 2018). Thus increased levels of competition as well as
increasing opportunities for top talent employees, both retention and recruitment will be difficult for
companies. Many companies initiated to retain the well performing employees and recruiting the best
has become difficult, especially in the sales sector (Wimalana, 2017). Sales force turnover is the most
challenging issue in Sri Lankan companies in overall (Wimalana, 2017). It indicates human needs and
human psychology are the key matters that managers of all levels in companies should consider to
motivate sales forces effectively. Meanwhile, internal marketing efforts related to appraisal and rewards
have been claimed as vital factor to improve brand citizenship behavior amongst local financial service
sector (Nirmali, Khathibi, & Azam, 2018).

Employee turnover is considered as a serious issue for many organizations. Thus, scholars view this
phenomenon as a persistent problem for the organization (Ahmad & Omar, 2010; Wimalana, 2017).
Employee turnover remains as one of the most widely researched topics in modern research context.
However, a great deal of confusion still exists over the reasons causing employees to leave an
organization including Sri Lanka whilst internal marketing tools are a need (Dissanayake & Ismail,
2015; Wimalana, 2017)., internal marketing and branding practices are noted as extended human
resources practices to be applied addressing employee related issues in Sri Lankan finance sector
(Dissanayake & Ismail, 2015; Nirmali et. al, 2018). The need to the customer-focused to the highly
changing marketing environment has more important for insurance companies. However, under the
present circumstances where customers are becoming more demanding and increasingly mobile
between competing insurance providers, being customer-oriented is not enough. Therefore, examine
the impact of internal marketing on brand commitment is an important notion in insurance industry in

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Sri Lanka. Therefore, referring to practice related significance and locally found empirical sources,
postulating research proposition for Sri Lankan insurance sector in a timely important notion
(Dissnayake, 2015).

Alongside, this paper concludes the research gap and industry related significance of investigating how
internal marketing building employee brand commitment in insurance industry in Sri Lanka. In line
with the foresaid notions, this study figures out its research problem as ‘How does internal marketing
influence employee brand commitment towards insurance industry in Sri Lanka?’

1.4. Research Questions

i. What does internal marketing influence affective commitment of employee towards brand in
Sri Lankan insurance industry?
ii. What does internal marketing influence normative commitment of employee towards brand in
Sri Lankan insurance industry?
iii. What does internal marketing influence continuance commitment of employee towards brand
in Sri Lankan insurance industry?
iv. What does internal marketing influence employee brand commitment in insurance industry in
Sri Lanka?
1.5. Research Objectives

i. To determine the influence of internal marketing on affective commitment of employee towards

brand in Sri Lankan insurance industry.
ii. To determine the influence of internal marketing on normative commitment of employee
towards brand in Sri Lankan insurance industry.
iii. To determine the influence of internal marketing on continuance commitment of employee
towards brand in Sri Lankan insurance industry.
iv. To analyze the impact of internal marketing on employee brand commitment in insurance
industry in Sri Lanka
2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Internal Marketing

Internal marketing is a way of incentives and rewards oriented to employees to increase the quality of
services provided by them to customer and to develop their interactive relationships (Gary, 2009).
Applying internal marketing practices in organization means that employees are regarded as internal
customers (Alencar de Farias, 2010). Internal marketing is that employees regarded in the business
organization as their internal customers who receive service from other workers in other departments
of the same organization (Haji Abdul and Al-Dmour, 2010). The internal marketing consists of several

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operations, including: administrative support, which refers to the ability of individuals to influence
workers to create their enthusiasm and commitment to the achievement of organizational goals, she sees
that employment give workers a set of skills and experiences that can improve the quality of their
performance of their business processes, and that the employment is a total skills and abilities possessed
by workers in the organization and they invest their skills and abilities effectively in the performance
of their business, and the external communication, which refers to the connection between the workers
themselves or between them and their supervisors to get accurate and comprehensive information about
the business operations, teamwork is encouraging workers to find homogeneous relationships with a
group of other workers who have common interests, to empower and involve employees in decision-
making processes to contribute to its implementation (Matahen, 2010). Internal marketing of great
importance in a company and can be the outlook was cooperation win-win between employees and
companies (Lin & Zhang, 2012). The internal marketing is to considerer employees as clients and
customers in the organization. In this; the business organizations position their workers in the first place,
and that it must deal with them as internal customers, and that the jobs that they do are internal products,
and the organization must pay special attention (Hugn, 2012). Treating employees as internal customers
motivate employees to give extra effort in order to reach for organization’s goals, which is also one of
the most important behavioral traits of an engaged employee (Vazifehdoost & Hooshmand, 2012).
Internal marketing practices and engaged employees’ behaviours, claiming that internal marketing is a
core tool to create strong employee engagement (Shahzad & Naeem, 2013). Internal marketing involves
the use of a range of systems that are working to adopt effective marketing strategies in order to increase
knowledge to workers in business organizations and make them more involved and participate in the
various processes (Bowen & Schneider, 2014). Internal marketing is a philosophy or a way of thinking,
a strategic approach that can guide managerial decision making or a set of initiatives and activities for
implementation (Huang & Rundle-Thiele, 2015).

2.2. Employee Brand Commitment

Thomson et al. (1999) argue that when employees are fully aware of and understand the brand values
they become more committed to the brand and to practice on-brand behavior. Brand commitment has
been considered as an important outcome of the dissemination of brand knowledge and also as resultant
of organizational effectiveness and productivity (Fiorito et al., 2007, Meyer et al., 1993). Three
dimensions of brand commitment –affective, continuance or calculative and normative commitment are
usually recognized in the marketing literature (Evanschitzky et al., 2006; Gruen et al., 2000; Jones et
al., 2010).

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2.2.1. Affective Commitment

Affective commitment arises from a trusting and enjoyable business relationship (Fullerton, 2005 and
Gilliland & Bello, 2002), which is based on principles of shared values, identification, attachment and
trust (Bansal et al, 2004; Fullerton, 2005; Gruen et al, 2000 and Morgan & Hunt, 1994). The importance
of congruency of organizational and individual objectives is emphasized in several definitions of
affective commitment. Affectively committed consumers’ relationship with the brand is broader
because psychological emotions control the functional and economic factors, and deeper because the
consumers identify themselves with the brand and become less sensitive to price or convenience (Mason
and Simmons, 2012).

2.2.2. Normative Commitment

Normative commitment refers to feelings of obligation or duty towards an entity. Weiner (1982) defines
normative commitment as ‘the totality of internalized normative pressures to act in a way which meets
organizational goals and interests’, and argues that normative commitment to the organization develops
during a socialization process for newcomers to the organization. Meyer & Allen (1991) argue that
normative commitment motivates individuals to behave appropriately and do what is right for the
organization. Social pressure, need for approval or motivation to comply with normative beliefs are the
main characteristics of this dimension of commitment (Jones et al., 2010; Lariviere et al., 2014; Tuškej
et al., 2013).

2.2.3. Continuance or Calculative Commitment

Continuance commitment refers to a position whereby one of the partners to the relationship, in either
a C2B, B2B or employee/employer context, are bound to their relationship partner because either it is
difficult to get out of the relationship, perhaps because of the cost associated with leaving or they
perceive few alternatives outside the existing relationship or both (Kanter, 1968). The construct has its
origins in economic and psychological switching costs and scarcity of alternatives (Bansal et al, 2004;
Fullerton, 2005 and Gruen et al, 2000). An important characteristic in continuance commitment is the
probability of losing something that adds value to the consumer (Fullerton, 2003). For instance, in the
event of brand switching, the consumer loses personality fit and cultural fit with the regular brand
(Fullerton, 2005). Another important motive of calculative commitment is a notably high perceived risk
from the customer during purchase or use (Belaid and Behi, 2011).

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3. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

3.1. Research Philosophy, Approach and Method

This research is adhering to the positivism philosophy. This research is adhering to the positivism
philosophy. As per philosophy, positivism philosophy view that only ‘factual’ knowledge gained
through observation, including measurement is trust worthy. In positivism studies the role of the
research is limited to data collection and interpretation in an objective way. Moreover, in positivism
studies the research is independent from the study and there are no provisions for human interests within
the study. Crowther and Lancaster (2008) argue that as general rule positivism studies usually adopt
deductive approach.

Quantitative research method is selected to conduct this research, which aims to evaluate the impact of
internal marketing on employee brand commitment in insurance industry.

3.2. Conceptual Research Model

Source: Compiled by Author, 2019

3.3. Hypotheses Development

- H1: Internal marketing has a significant influence on affective commitment of employee toward
brand in Sri Lankan insurance industry.
- H2: Internal marketing has a significant influence on normative commitment of employee toward
brand in Sri Lankan insurance industry.
- H3: Internal marketing has a significant influence on continuance commitment of employee toward
brand in Sri Lankan insurance industry.

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- H4: Internal marketing has a significant influence on employee brand commitment in Sri Lankan
insurance industry.

3.4. Research Instrument

Research instrument is developed as a structured questionnaire based on three studies found in academic
literature. The first part of the questionnaire is designed to gather demographic factors of respondents.
And second part of the questionnaire is designed to evaluate internal marketing, employee brand
commitment. The first part of the questionnaire consisted of control questions with the aim to define
respondent’s demographic factors. They are measured through multi chotomous items. The second part
of the questionnaire are measured on five-point likert scale (from 1 – strongly disagree to 5 – strongly
agree), which means that respondents are asked to express their level of agreement with a statement.

3.5. Sample

The target population here is the employees of insurance industry in Sri Lanka selected for their
convenience to the study. According to the IRCSL report (2017) employees of insurance industry in Sri
Lanka are around 18,467 of a total.

Due to the scattered distribution of the target population it is difficult to take much of them and therefore
the study has used statistical sample calculation method with 95% confidence level of significance
which stated the appropriate sample size for a population between to be 15,000 – 20,000 is 377. Using
the limit, the study has tried to address 377 employees in insurance companies. The selection/sampling
is stratified method to avoid any possible bias throughout the survey. The main input for this study is
primary data collected through questionnaires of close ended questions distributed to the samples
selected plus 25% reserve (377 + 95) questionnaires for replacing those unreturned and not properly
filled ones. This study is quantitative in that it tried to test the existing theories of the relations between
and among internal marketing; employee brand commitment and employee brand love through the use
of questionnaires distributed for 472 employees of insurance industry. As such 436 are returned. But 36
questionnaires are rejected due to the errors and 400 questionnaires are properly filled and submitted.

The main input for this study is primary data collected through questionnaires of close ended questions
distributed to the samples selected plus 25% reserve (377 + 95) questionnaires for replacing those
unreturned and not properly filled ones (Takele & Abebe, 2013; Bojarskyte, 2017). Sample is
distributed by weighting the number of employees in the province.

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Researcher has selected 7 insurance companies to collect data.

 Sri Lanka Insurance Company
This is the state insurance company in Sri Lankan insurance industry and the composite insurance
company (IRCSL, 2017).
 Ceylinco Life Insurance Company and Ceylinco General Insurance Company
This is the market leader in life and general insurance company (IRCSL, 2017).
 National Insurance Trust Fund
This is only re-insurance company in Sri Lanka (IRCSL, 2017).
 AIA Insurance Lanka
This is a multinational company. And it is in the top 3 life insurance company (IRCSL, 2017).
 SANASA Life Insurance Company and SANASA General Insurance Company
This is a corporative and micro insurance company which has large network in Sri Lanka (IRCSL,
2017).

Table 3.7: Sample Distribution

Province Number of Employees Sample Taken
Central Province 1,018 26
Eastern Province 652 17
North Central Province 724 19
North Western Province 1,116 28
Northern Province 547 14
Sabaragamuwa Province 822 21
Southern Province 1,470 38
Uva Province 583 15
Western Province 11,535 294
Total 18,467 472
Source: Compiled by Author, 2019

3.6. Data Analysis Methods

Analysis of the data obtained by means of data collection in the research, is carried out in a computer
environment using SPSS package programs.
The data analysis will be performed in the following sequence:
 Descriptive analysis will be performed to summarize the basic data of the research.
 Reliability analysis will be done to test scales for internal consistency and reliability.
 Pearson correlation tests will be performed to test hypotheses depending on the normality of
distribution.
 Regression analysis.

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4. DATA ANALYSIS

4.1. Sample Profile

This resulted in a sample of 400 respondents, of which 48.75% are male and 51.25% female. 49% of
the respondents’ age varied between 26 years and 35 years. More respondents have 1 to 5 years work
experience with company. Moreover, 76% of the respondents are an operational position in the
company, and 24% of the sample works in management level.

4.2. Internal Consistency and Reliability Test Results

Scale Number of Items Cronbach Alpha

Internal Marketing 15 0.956
Affective Commitment 7 0.701
Normative commitment 3 0.695
Continuance commitment 5 0.703
Employee Brand Commitment 15 0.725
Source: Compiled by Author, 2019

Performing Cronbach alpha reliability test proved that all variables that measure internal marketing and
employee brand commitment constructs are highly consistent and reliable. Internal marketing scale is
measured through fifteen items in the questionnaire. The Cronbach alpha coefficient was sufficiently
high – 0.956. As the value of Cronbach alpha above 0.70 can be used as a reasonable test of scale
reliability, it confirmed that all items used to measure this variable are consistent and reliable. All
variables measuring the affective commitment scored sufficiently high to fulfill the required value of
Cronbach alpha which is scored 0.701. The normative commitment scored is not fulfill the required
value of Cronbach alpha which is scored 0.695. The continuance commitment scored sufficiently high
to fulfill the required value of Cronbach alpha which is scored 0.703. All variables measuring the
employee brand commitment scored sufficiently high to fulfill the required value of Cronbach alpha
which is scored 0.725.

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4.3. Correlation Analysis

Correlations
Calculative Employee
Internal Affective Normative (continuance) Brand
Marketing commitment commitment commitment Commitment
Internal Marketing Pearson
1 .536** .378** .540** .602**
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000
N 400 400 400 400 400
Affective Pearson
.536** 1 .378** .628** .820**
commitment Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000
N 400 400 400 400 400
Normative Pearson
.378** .378** 1 .424** .727**
commitment Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000
N 400 400 400 400 400
Calculative Pearson
.540** .628** .424** 1 .871**
(continuance) Correlation
commitment Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000
N 400 400 400 400 400
Employee Brand Pearson
.602** .820** .727** .871** 1
Commitment Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000
N 400 400 400 400 400
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Source: Compiled by Author, 2019

After performing Pearson correlation test for all hypotheses and checking the significance of the
relationship among variables, most of the hypotheses are accepted. Therefore, the conceptual research
model is proved to be valid as the research results were highly consistent with the theoretical
assumptions. Internal marketing is positively and significantly correlated to affective commitment (r =
0.536, p < 0.01), normative commitment (r = 0.378, p < 0.01) and continuance commitment (r = 0.540,
p < 0.01). Internal marketing is positively and significantly correlated to both Employee brand
commitment (r = 0.602, p < 0.01). These results indicate that internal marketing and employee brand
commitment are strongly related to each other, meaning that when internal marketing is higher,
employee brand commitment will be higher too.

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4.4. Regression Analysis

R2 F Sig. Β std. coefficient T Sig.

beta

0.285 160.268 0.000 0.466 0.536 12.660 0.000

Source: Compiled by Author, 2019

The regression model is significant (p<0.01) with R-square (adj.) value of 0.285. That is internal
marketing has a significant (p<0.01) impact on affective commitment with std. coefficient beta values
of 0.536 (t=12.660, p=0.000). The proposed model is adequate as the F-statistic (160.268) is significant
(p=0.000). H1 is accepted.

R2 F Sig. Β std. coefficient T Sig.

beta

0.141 66.225 0.000 0.333 0.378 8.138 0.000

Source: Compiled by Author, 2019

The regression model is significant (p<0.01) with R-square (adj.) value of 0.141. Internal marketing
efforts have a significant (p<0.01) impact on normative commitment with std. coefficient beta values
of 0.378 (t=8.138, p=0.000). The proposed model is adequate as the F-statistic (66.225) is significant
(p=0.000). H2 is accepted.

R2 F Sig. Β std. coefficient T Sig.

beta

0.290 163.609 0.000 0. 583 0.540 12.791 0.000

Source: Compiled by Author, 2019

The regression model is significant (p<0.01) with adjusted R-square (adj.) value of 0.290. Internal
marketing efforts have a significant (p<0.01) impact on continuance commitment with std. coefficient
beta values of 0.540 (t=12.791, p=0.000). The proposed model is adequate as the F-statistic (163.609)
is significant (p=0.000). H3 is accepted.

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R2 F Sig. Β std. coefficient T Sig.

beta

0.361 25.973 0.000 0.461 0.602 15.032 0.000

Source: Compiled by Author, 2019

The regression model is significant (p<0.01) with adjusted R-square (adj.) value of 0.361. Internal
marketing efforts have a significant (p<0.01) impact on employee brand commitment with std.
coefficient beta values of 0.602 (t=15.032, p=0.000). The proposed model is adequate as the F-statistic
(25.973) is significant (p=0.000). H4 is accepted.

Internal marketing does influence on employee brand commitment in Sri Lankan insurance industry.

5. CONCLUSION

Results for the hypotheses indicated that all internal marketing practices that have the effect of
improving the employee brand commitment of the insurance companies in Sri Lanka and is the highest-
dimensional effect in terms empowerment, managerial support, training programs, internal
communication and finally rewards and incentives.

The results of the regression analysis show that internal marketing has a significant positive effect on
employee brand commitment (β = 0.602, p < 0.01) and explained 36.1% of the variance in employee
brand commitment (R² = 0.361, p < 0.01). If employees perceive more internal marketing activities,
their brand commitment is likely to increase. This means that companies still have to invest in internal
marketing and try to communicate the brand promise to employees through trainings, internal
communications, group meetings and workshops to make sure employees become more committed to
the brand. Even though the amount of variance explained in employee brand commitment by internal
marketing is not substantial, internal marketing does increase the brand commitment of employees. So
the regression analysis finds support for hypothesis 1, since internal marketing influence on employee
brand commitment. The results, however, show that internal marketing mechanisms are still effective
in determining employee brand commitment and that this effect is significant. The results are in line
with previous research of Punjaisri and Wilson (2011), Yang et al. (2015) and Burmann et al. (2009).

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6. RECOMMENDATIONS

In light of the findings the researcher recommends management of insurance companies and decision-
makers, including the following:
i. Enhance training programs practice at the insurance companies by dispatching staff in the
external and internal training programs and promotes the principle of the exchange of
experiences between the old and new staff.
ii. To activate empowerment systems at the insurance companies to promote and accelerate
customer service, transmit confidence in the hearts of employees and enhance engagement
force among the employees of the insurance companies in Sri Lanka.
iii. Adopt regulatory managerial support systems to enhance employee brand commitment of the
insurance companies in Sri Lanka. Enhance working commitment principle because of its
importance, especially in insurance companies being part of the ethics function, especially in
the insurance industry.
iv. Attempt to make a number of studies related to the variables of the study, especially to industry
sector in Sri Lanka.

As it has been concluded above insurance companies are doing well with introducing the internal
marketing concepts to the employees in that they are aware of their brand and committed to deliver its
promises. This effort should not have to be the end and all the employees should have to be introduced
with the brand behaviors to be capable of satisfying its customers in the long run.

Not only insurance industry but also other service industries should learn from such studies to let their
employees be aware of their respective brands, which is helpful in helping one’s brand promises be
effectively delivered, developing the brand itself, understanding customer’s needs and expectations as
well as possessing an outstanding position in the market having best brand ambassadors. Generally,
employees brand commitment should have to be the strategic deals on which every organizations focus
on letting their customers get what they expect from the respective companies. On the other hand, since
this issue is basic and newly emerging further studies should have to be made again and again to let it
be clear to all employees of our environment.

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7. REFERENCES

[1] Al-Haji Abdul, Amel., & Al-Dmour, Hani. (2010). The impact of the application of internal
marketing in job satisfaction for the sales staff in the Jordan Telecom Group. Jordan Journal of
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